LinkedIn, Facebook and PitchEngine all have paid options that provide benefits that their free services cannot. The real question, however, is which social media accounts are worth paying for, and which are not.

Out of all the social media tools, LinkedIn provides one of the most helpful paid services. LinkedIn offers different levels among their paid accounts geared towards job-seekers, recruiters and businesses. Paid LinkedIn accounts expand your search options to allow you to search for jobs based on salary, see detailed information about who has viewed your profile, and perhaps most importantly, send “InMail” messages to people not in your network. But who should pay for LinkedIn is the more important question. LinkedIn is highly effective for recruiters to source names and consultants who use a lot of specific vendors.

Facebook has recently expanded its paid options. Targeted ads have long been part of Facebook and provide businesses a possibility to increase their customer engagement. The new paid option for businesses is sponsored stories, which appear in your news feed and are the only ads that can be displayed on Facebook mobile. Whether you should pay for any of these services largely depends on your type of business and the audience you’re trying to reach. The beauty of Facebook ads is that due to an active user base, loads of information is collected and allowing businesses to target niche group of customers.

For sending out announcements or press releases, PitchEngine is a tool that offers both free and paid options. It allows you to embed videos and pictures into your announcement, publish an unlimited number of announcements to search engines, social media sites, mobile sites and email. There are two paid options at $39 a month or $99 a month, which both make your announcements SEO friendly.

Instead of signing up for all paid accounts on social media, decide which paid social media sites would be most helpful for your brand. If you want to connect with people outside of your network, LinkedIn’s paid feature may be appealing to you, whereas if you want to optimize your press releases for SEO, one of PitchEngine’s paid plans may suit your needs.

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Managing a Facebook Career Page is another way to broaden a company’s social engagement. It may seem a bit superfluous to have a Facebook Career Page in addition to a company website or company LinkedIn profile, but having a career page on Facebook immediately opens up a business to the 901 million Facebook users.

By curating your Facebook Career Page yourself, instead of letting Facebook automatically create one, you are taking control of your brand, much the same way as creating a page for your business gives you control over the content. Managing your company’s page yourself is the only way that you can control how your brand is marketed.

Having a career page provides an outlet for you to create a dialogue with your consumer base. Marketing through social media is all about creating a community of followers and interacting with your followers can strengthen your brand, SEO, and customer base. Some tips for engaging your followers on Facebook include: sharing links instead of only text and give your followers reason to spread the word of your brand through promotions, useful original content, and thoughtful leadership. Include phrases such as “share with your friends” and “click here” to create an interactive relationship with your followers. Direct them to your other web presences to add value and track the user engagement.

Having a Facebook Career Page can be time consuming, but it can also be an asset to help build your brand. LIke any medium, make sure this also fits with your overall brand strategy before you just hit “Go”.

Facebook’s underwhelming stock performance and the recent flight of some of their top executives has prompted people to hypothesize how the company will appease its investors. Facebook needs to create more of demand for its stock; it has been rumored that Facebook may cease to be a free service, but in light of its disappointing IPO this may be the best way to boost revenues. Of course, they will have to have some free services to keep their user base, but they could benefit from some paid features.

Facebook just unveiled a new feature where companies can pay to promote posts and status updates. Having to pay to promote posts on Facebook is not by itself a terrible feature, but it does go against the open access that made these social networks so successful in the first place. While many social media tools, such as LinkedIn, do have options that require fees, the potential problem with this paid promotions feature is that it could diminish their user base.

It’s too soon to tell if having paid accounts would destroy Facebook. While having to pay for an account would undoubtedly unrage users, Facebook is so popular and so often used that people may just pay the fee instead of taking the hassle to switch over to a rival site, such as Google+.

“In my experience as a headhunter for PR and communications positions, we do use LinkedIn, but very selectively. It’s a research tool, but we develop candidates more by personally reaching out to existing contacts and to sources in our networks and by developing specific research to find top talent for the position we are handling. So, yes, while professionals who are keeping an eye out for new opportunities should certainly create and use LinkedIn profiles, it cannot be the only way, nor should it consume all your job seeking time. But if you are on LinkedIn do make it easy for a recruiter to contact you.”For more of Sai’s discussion on the WMN panel.

Markets the company’s brand through all channels of interactive marketing social media, circulates existing company marketing materials, and is responsible for all marketing-oriented technology

Expands on the company’s already implemented brand positioning by working with PR and marketing teams to maximize the development of programs that are still gaining exposure

Enhances the brand’s image by developing customer loyalty and increasing brand awareness. Establishes consistency across multiple networks and works with the marketing and public relations team to ensure proper messaging is being published online.

Manages analytics measures, such as SEO and PPC, related to social media, reporting on campaign effectiveness.

Leverages Google Analytics and other social media management software to develop criteria for evaluating social media campaigns

Data Evangelist/ Social Media Analytics Strategist

Measures and evaluates all social media campaigns, working with social media strategists to influence decisions on whether to continue or terminate projects.

Develops and alters the criteria by which they measure social media’s effectiveness (length of time spent on sites, number of new registered users, search engine optimization [SEO] improvement, number of page views, etc.) and evaluates social media’s contribution to ROI

Social media experts with a background in market research or web analytics often take the position of social media analytics strategist which calls for the measurement of success in social media projects and campaigns.

Propose opportunities for social media growth and supplies detailed reports of current and future campaigns with their estimated contributions to cost and expansion.

Responsible for analyzing performance and providing suggestions to improve or expand the use of technology and social media platforms.

Note: Titles in social media marketing and communications often vary. This list is meant to be a helpful guide rather than a compilation of what we offer to our clients.

Other keywords that could be used interchangeably among the above titles are corporate tweeter, reputation management, media strategy, digital media, social CRM, social computing, engagement, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, social media marketing, social media branding, online communities, communities and conversations, social media operations, interactive media, new media, new media marketing, online content, social technology, and social network.

These are the growing social media tools that will undoubtedly be indispensable in the upcoming year.

Content marketing, which has had some power as a social media tool in the past, will in the upcoming year become extremely influential, due, in part, to the now widespread knowledge of how to optimize SEO and how to manage customer relationships. We’ve reached a period where marketers must have a variety of skills, from using online resources, to knowing how to edit a video.

In addition to having a variety of skills, marketers must also now be able to integrate marketing, technology, and data. This is what Marketing Technologists and Marketing Scientists have specialized in. The focus on this integration is going to be even more important in the upcoming year and is why marketers need to have knowledge of the entire spectrum of social media.

With Facebook, Linked In, and Reddit leading social media, it is vital not just to have a page, but to constantly update it and gain more influence. Knowing the influence of your social media is a necessity for having an effective social media site. Sites like Klout and PeerIndex, which put a number to your influence on social media, are incredibly helpful in figuring out what exactly your influence is and how you can improve it.

Social Media, with its inherent translucence, has created some potential problems with privacy and security–on both the individual and organizational level. That is why, the last tool we’re thankful for is social media security.

The volume and constant flow of today’s online information can make it difficult to stand out in the sea of resumes and profiles, often making it difficult for recruiters to pinpoint the right candidates. The applicants who possess qualities suited for the company may not put as much time into polishing their personal profiles as they do their resumes and cover letters.

Trufflepig Search sees social networking sites as a hub of opportunities for people to not only stay connected, but also a place for prospects to market themselves as potential employees. The search power that comes with being part of a social network—because it is social—creates more chances for recruiters to recognize a candidate with a history of engagement in industries relevant to the hiring company. Sites like LinkedIn, in particular, are especially useful for showcasing accumulated experience in the workforce because of its professional focus on networking.

In her article, “Everybody’s Business,” Margaret Milkint of Best’s Review advises jobseekers to become proactive in the virtual world so that employers can spot a prospective candidate: “Merely joining a social network is equivalent to hiding in the corner at a networking event. With your original goal in mind, participate! Search for and link to, friends or follow people who can add value. Join relevant groups; monitor or post jobs; and share interesting links and insightful remarks. … demonstrate a willingness to act … by participating in the conversation.”

LinkedIn even provides its users with a profile-building checklist to maximize their exposure to recruiters. Use it!

Social networking gave more access to employers and employees alike, connecting people more easily and faster than ever. Social sites like LinkedIn can provide job seekers with any company’s listings instantly and give employers access to jobseekers quickly. Although there are obvious negative effects of such transparency, the benefits of using social networking sites as a hiring tool outweigh its risks. Recruiters should continue utilizing the sites, they should also be careful in selecting the criteria they use to review candidates.

The American Journal of Business Education explains thatthe top three reasons employers reject candidates after online screenings are because they posted “provocative or inappropriate photos or information… content regarding use of drinking or drugs, and because they bad mouthed a previous employer, co-worker, or client” (Vicknair, 2010). Companies can use social networking sites before hiring to avoid candidates with poor work ethic, lack of professionalism, or who engage in illicit activities—details that no applicant would willingly disclose in an interview. Donald Kluemper of Louisiana State University and Peter Rosen of the University of Evansville in Indiana say personal pages on Facebook and similar social networking sites can be used to predict the personality of a job candidate, much like a personality test (HR Magazine, 2010).

Many people searching for jobs fear that recruiters might use social networking sites to invade their privacy or discriminate based on inappropriate criteria. While this is a valid concern, applicants always have the option of keeping their information private; it is the responsibility of the candidate to know the consequences of self-presentation and to employ censorship if necessary. Only if an employer somehow gains access to private information (only accessible to “friends” or a customizable list), would the candidate have a legal claim against the employer for invasion of privacy (Practical Lawyer, Martucci, 2010).

Employers must also be aware that visiting a candidate’s profile could result in finding information that would otherwise be off-limits for employers to inquire about. Basing hiring decisions on attributes such as disability, race, religion, and age could result in unlawful discrimination against the potential employee. To avoid liability, it is crucial that all searches and sites visited be well documented. That said, the value of engaging on social sites is still growing and candidates should keep an updated professional profile on LinkedIn, complete with recommendations, descriptions, keywords, and groups. This is fast becoming a valuable source for recruiters, including ours at Trufflepig Search.

Social media presents new options for recruiters to find candidate background but the traditional methods of researching potential employees are still essential. According to HR Magazine, many corporate attorneys limit what its employees can say about past employees, even employees who could benefit from compliments on good work ethic (Meinert, 2011).

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) poll on background checks taken in 2010 revealed that most information provided by former employers gives limited help in deciding whether a candidate is a good company match. Of the 433 responding organizations, 98% said they would verify the dates of employment for current or former employees. More than two-thirds said they wouldnot discuss work performance, and over 80% said they would neither discuss character and personality nor any disciplinary actions taken while the candidate was employed (Meinert, 2011). Because references are not always a reliable source of useful information, companies are turning to social networking sites to aid in background checks.

Of course, phone calls and profile research are still essential to the hiring process. Screening through social networking sites is much more cost-effective than traditional phone interviews. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter all provide free services where companies can post career opportunities that gain exposure to consumers as well. However, Trufflepig Search understands that nothing can take the place of first hand interaction. Interviews offer a better chance to interpret the candidate’s tone and indicate certain personality traits.

It’s still time consuming but important to contact phone references. Yves Lermusi, CEO of Checkster, a background-screening company, states that, for a traditional reference check by phone, it takes 76 minutes to try to contact three references and reach two (Meinert, 2011).

Trufflepig Search uses social networking sites to find candidates who are Internet-savvy and know about LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. Applicants who are familiar with these social networking sites are especially valuable.

Especially in tough economic times, we at Trufflepig Search know the value of incorporating social media into our recruiting efforts.

Since 2010, Twitter celebrated its 5th birthday and LinkedIn now reaches over 100 million users—needless to say, social networks are still growing rapidly and are retaining their user base as well. Facebook moved to business pages, Youtube is growing its popularity abroad, and the advancements of mobile devices took these services on the go. Social media is not going away. Last year’s impressive growth statistics pale in comparison to this year’s. LinkedIn alone posted 100% user growth over the past year, breaking the 100 million user mark.

By constantly re-evaluating audience needs and adjusting accordingly, many have managed to attract and retain users amidst a growing need for managing enormous numbers. Trufflepig Search uncovers the best experts making this growth possible for companies, agencies, and non-profits.